Category Archives: General History

Even before Brexit, there were debates as to whether the UK should be described as a European country. On one hand, the UK is certainly culturally closer to European countries than, say, Asian ones. On the other hand, there are significant differences between UK and the rest of Europe.

Sometimes,, historical tragedy is the archaeologist’s best friend. Most cities slowly fade into obscurity as people gradually pack up their belongings and move away, chasing greener or safer pastures. The buildings they leave behind slowly crumble until there’s nothing left but foundations which often become buried by debris, newer construction, or both. When death is instantaneous and on a massive scale, however, sometimes belongings survive intact and in their natural places for scientists to one day find. The eruption of

There’s talk of late of where transgender people should go to the bathroom. If you’re physically male, but you consider yourself female, do you use the men’s room or the ladies’ room? What if you have gender reassignment surgery, so you’re physically a different gender than you were at birth? Or, a question I’ve always asked, long before I had heard of transgenderism: why the heck do we care? The Modern Urinal Of course, the urinal poses some problem, since

I don’t actually have a lot to debunk about St. Patrick Day. More like just giving up tidbits of information. Feast Day March 17 is the official feast day for St. Patrick. Theoretically, it’s the date of his death. In truth, we have no idea when he died, nor, to the best of my knowledge, how he died. Unlike many early saints, Patrick was not a martyr. Had he died for his faith, the story of it would certainly have

Today’s post was inspired by a doctor’s visit when, in the waiting room, one patient abruptly informed another patient that Friday the 13th superstitions were based on the execution of the Templars. He also insisted most people don’t know that. Hasn’t everyone heard that story? Maybe it’s just a history major urban legend. I sure thought most people had heard that claim. The fact is, it’s baloney. The Knights Templar on Friday the 13th On Friday, October 13, 1307, hundreds

As a medievalist, 476 C.E. is arguably the beginning date of my time period, the Middle Ages. That is the date we normally give for the fall of the Western Roman Empire, although it is chosen somewhat arbitrarily, as Rome was not really functioning as an empire by that point. Which, I think, is not how people understand the fall of the Roman Empire. The great and powerful empire didn’t just get overrun one day, It was a slow, steady

Oklahoma is considering legally preventing people from concealing themselves “in a public place by means of a robe, mask, or other disguise,” via a proposed law the media is nicknaming the “hoodie ban.” This, of course, in the wake of the Treyvon Martin shooting, in which his wearing of a hoodie potentially intimidated his shooter. In Michigan, a black man was questioned by police for having his hands in his pockets on a cold December day, because that somehow made

You may have heard English is one of the harder world languages to learn as a second language. The problem is it borrows from too many sources, meaning our grammar and spelling rules are something like the Pirate Code from Pirates of the Caribbean: more like suggestions than actual rules. It’s how we end up with bough and cough not rhyming, how individual words end up meaning different things, such as bow (bow of a ship, bow and arrow, bow

The world is full of symbols, even if we don’t consciously consider them such. A symbol is something that represents something else through common agreement rather than anything inherent in its nature. In America, a red octagon is strongly associated with “Stop,” as is a red light. In other contexts, red means other things, like love. No one thinks a red light means love, however. Written language as also symbolic. Each squiggle only means something because we all agree it

For a long time, I often abbreviated Christianity and Christmas to Xtianity and Xmas in class for no better reason than it was quicker. Then, one day, I had a student complain the spelling was anti-Christian. This student had been a semester-long pain in the ass (accusing me of working witchcraft on the class, among other things), but I started refraining from using the phrases, in part because I didn’t know precisely where the spellings came from. I have no